Josh’s Favorite Episodes of TV of 2018 — Part One!

Ok, here we go! I’m a bit later that usual launching my annual Best of the Year lists (I’ve been working on some illustration projects that have been taking up all of my free time — click on my updated portfolio page for a few teases, with more news hopefully coming in the next few months), but I’m here now and ready to go!

This annual list began as a Top Ten list and last year ballooned to a Top Twenty-Five! This year it’s a Top 19. What can I say, that’s a weird number, but there were 19 shows/episodes that I wanted to highlight!

I always begin these lists with a list of the shows I HADN’T watched but wanted to, and this year that list of shows I missed is longer than ever. I mean, insanely long. I keep a running list of shows that interest me and that I wanted to watch, and while I watch a lot of TV, I nevertheless wasn’t able to get to: Atlanta, Barry, Homecoming, Killing Eve, A Very English Scandal, Bodyguard, Bojack Horseman, The End of the F***ing World, Counterpart, American Vandal, Maniac, Patriot, Altered Carbon, The Expanse, and The Romanoffs. Then there were the returning shows whose latest seasons I still haven’t found time to watch: Black Mirror season four (I watched the first few episodes but never finished), The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel season two, Legion season two, Westworld season two, Iron Fist season two, and Daredevil season three. Aargh that is a lot of fantastic TV that I wasn’t able to see in 2018!! I’m hoping to catch up with some of those shows in 2019… even though there are lots of new 2019 shows already out and/or coming soon (True Detective season three, the final episodes of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, etc.)!! Sigh. The joys and pain of “Peak TV”.

But, OK, enough moaning, there WAS so much great TV that I DID see in 2018 and am so excited to celebrate. Here we go:

19. The Simpsons: “My Way or the Highway to Heaven” (season thirty, episode three, aired on 10/14/18) — Wow! For very first time since I started writing these lists a decade ago, The Simpsons makes an appearance! I started watching The Simpsons a few episodes into season one, and I watched it religiously through around season 15, but then I drifted away. I started watching again after The Simpsons Movie (which I loved) and watched for about half that season, but it didn’t hold my interest. I’ve dipped back in occasionally over the past decade, but it wasn’t until this past year that I watched several episodes in a row that made me … [continued]

From J.W. Rinzler’s upcoming book The Making of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, io9 has collected a fascinating (oops, wrong Star franchise) list of 10 things you probably didn’t know about Return of the Jedi. This is a must-read for all Star Wars fans. Speaking of Star Wars and i09, I also love their list of the 9 least-competent Jedi. I don’t know anything about the expanded universe characters, but they’re certainly right on the money about Qui-Gon Jin. (And Ben Kenobi. And Yoda. And Luke.)

I’ve been very critical of Star Trek Into Darkness on this site. … [continued]